Media Gender Gap

New Research Shines Light on Gender Bias in Major U.S. Broadcast, Print, Online, & Wire Outlets: Male Journalists Dominate Most Sectors

The Women’s Media Center – founded by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem – has the goal of making women visible and powerful in media.

We examined 20 of the most widely circulated, read, viewed and listened to U.S. based TV networks, newspapers, news wires and online news sites. The research findings tell a stark story about where women stand across every platform in the 24/7 news cycle.

We conducted this research in order to shine a light on how well American news media – the shaper of images, ideologies, and ideals – allow women to craft our own narrative and include our voices in a wide-ranging public discourse over the airwaves, in print and online. Our conclusion: American media have exceedingly more distance to travel on the road to gender-blind parity.

The new research is included in the updated Women’s Media Center’s Status of Women in U.S. Media 2014 report— which consists of an avalanche of studies and reports examining the representation of women in newspapers, online-only news sites, television, radio, social media, video games, film and television — was originally released in February, but has been updated to include this research and other new data.

Quotes from Jill Abramson, executive editor of The New York Times, Linda Winslow, executive producer of PBS “News Hour,” Arianna Huffington, chair, president, editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group and a Reuters spokeswoman about this new research are included in the updated Women’s Media Center’s Status of U.S. Women in the Media 2014.